Title
Author(s)
The search for identity in Things fall apart, A man of the people,
Anthills of the Savannah and selected essays by Chinua Achebe
Tsang, Sze-pui, Jappe.; 曾施佩.
Citation
Issued Date
URL
Rights
2001
http://hdl.handle.net/10722/40595
The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights)
and the right to use in future works.
The search for identity in Things fall Apart,
A Man ofthe People, Anthills ofthe Savannah and
selected essays by Chinua Achebe
Tsang Sze Pui, Jappe
Dissertation submitted for the degree ofMaster of Arts in English
studies
Department of English
The University ofHong Kong.
August 2001
Declaration
J declare that this dissertation represents my own works, except
where due acknowledgement is made, and that it has not been
previously included in a thesis, dissertation or report submitted to this
university or to any other institution for a degree, diploma or other
qualification.
s
igned(Ç/
Tsang Sze Pui, Jappe
111
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Dr. Elaine
Ho for the inspirations and help
she gave me in the process of
writing this dissertation. Without
her guidance and suggestions, I
can hardly finish my dissertation.
like to take this
I would
opportunity to express my
gratitude to her kind assistance
and encouragement.
1V
Abstract
A wñter has the same kind
of
responsibility in all cultures, but the
various elements of that responsibility come in different proportions
according to the health
of
the community he
trying to ser'e. ft is
determined by historical predicament. ¡n Nigeria there a sense of the
loss ofinitiative in your own histo,y, the loss ofresponsibi1ity...Ana of
course, the view
of
the government s alien: in our traditional culture
everybody was supposed to participate in the government.
. .
Now, all that
has gone. WIthin one generation people lose even the memory of what
used to be.
The writer has a responsibility to remember what it
was like before, and
to keep talking about it.
(Chinua Achebe in an interview with Jim Davidson, Needham i 993 : il)
As a postcolonial write; Achebe serves his community by challenging the
hegemonie western-imposed identity and by providing alternative accounts of
his culture and people so as to reconstruct a new image ofAfrica and Africans in
bis texts. Fie realises that it can never be achieved if his people lose the memory
of what their history and culture used to be, and hence he 'keep(s) talldng about
if , trying to retrieve their memory in his novels. In this dissertation, I will look
into the process of how Achebe reminds his people of their past, and the process
of identity-reconstruction.
'u
iv
Contents
Page
Abstract
ji
Declaration..............................................................................
Acknowledgements.................................................................... iv
Table of Contents ....................................................................... y
Thfroduetion ..............................................................................
Chapter one: Identity
............................................................... 2
Colonial identity .......................................................................... 6
Postcolonial identity ...................................................................... 9
The formation of identity
Chapter two: Achebe's views of identity
Achebe's purposes ofwriting ......................................................... 12
Things Fall Apart ........................................................................ i 6
A Man ofthe People .................................................................... 25
Anthills ofthe Savannah ................................................................. 36
The language used in Achebe's novels ................................................ 49
Chapter three: Conclusion
Aehebe's quest for the identity ........................................................ 54
References ............................................................................... 59
V
Chinua Achebe is an influential writer. His profound impact is not limited to
his country Nigeria, or Africa. He brings us a real picture of Africa and
rehabilitates African history and culture that was once denied, the tradition
disrupted as well as identity distorted by colonialism. His first book
Things Fall
Apart, to him, was an act of atonement with my past, the ritual return and
homage ofa prodigal son. (Achebe 1976: 102) With his book, he not only leads
many prodigal sons to return to their past, to re-understand their culture and
values, to reconstruct their identity, but also non-African readers to perceive
Africa in a new way. However, as he says, 'things happen very fast in Africa. I
had hardly begun to bask in the sunshine of reconciliation when a new cloud
appeared, a new estrangement.' (Aehebe 1976 :102) Facing the 'new cloud',
Achebe exposes
the Savannah.
it in A Man ofthe People,
and proposes solutions in Anthills
of
These three bocks seem to be an embodiment of the past, present
and future ofNigeria, -what Achebe hopes to achieve:
The most meaningful work that African writers can do today will take into account our
whole history: how we got there, and what it is today and this will help us to map out
our pians for the future. (interview with Ernest and Pat Ernenyonu, Lindfors 1997: 39)
New problems keep coming to the society and each time when Achebe
tries to deal with them, he sees more clearly what the causes are and what
Nigerians -and - Africans lack in their identity. We can see the changes in
Achebe's perception of his people and the changes of identity he intends to
construct in his novels. Before looking into these, I am going to focus on the
definition ofidentity first. Then J will explore the process ofAchebe's search for
identity in his three novels,
ofthe Savannah.
Things Fall Apart, A Man ofthe People
and Anthills
Finally, the issue oflinguistic identity will be discussed.
I
Chapter one: Identity
The formation of identity
Identity seems a simple concept. Every one ofus has an individual identity
-
by our beliefs, values, styles, manners, characters and ways of acting, etc.- which
is constituted by the ways we define ourselves, i.e. who we are. However, this
definition fails to give us the whole picture. This notion does not take into
account the influence of society and culture, by which the coastruction of
self-identity is heavily affected.
People identify with those with whom they share common history, culture
and tradition, which constitute our collective identity. Stuart Hall introduces the
idea of collective identity by defining it in terms of one, shared culture, a sort of
collective "one true self, hiding inside the many other, more superficial or
artificially imposed selves, which people with a shared history and ancestry hold
in common.' In this way our collective identity ' reflects the common historical
experiences and shared cultural codes which provide us, as 'one peopl&, with
stable, divisions and vicissitudes of our actual history.'(Hall, i 994:394) Ngugi's
idea also supports it. He says that 'culture embodies moral, ethical and aesthetic
values Through which they come to view themselves and their place in the
universe.'(Ngugi 1994:441) This set ofvalues is 'the basis of a people's identity'
(Ngugi 1994: 441), on which our individual identity is built. Therefore, besides
personal factors, our culture and history play an important role in shaping our
individual identity.
In other words, our identity is strongly related to the past.
Our individual identity, in this sense, is coistituted through two dimensions:
the collective dimension in which we interact with our world. both present and
past, our histoly and culture; and the personal dimension in which we see
ourselves.
So far, the main sources of forming our individual and collective identity
have been explored. Still. these only present us with half of the picture. They
suggest that a subjective way ofviewing identity, i.e. how we see ourselves i our
own culture defmes us. Supposing our culture is transmitted from one generation
to the next without being affected by other factors, then our identity will remain
more or less the same. However, Stuart Hall reminds us that our identity is not
fixed. It is still in the making and the process is never quite complete. In the
process of self-identification, some external factors, such as the ways others look
at our selves
and community also play a role.
Identity is not absolute. It can only be meaningful when related to
something different. Hall states that 'it is only through the relation to the Other,
the relation to what it is not, to precisely what it lacks, to what has been called its
consWutive outside
that the " positive" meaning of any term -and thus its
"identity" - can be constructed.' (Hall 1996:4) Identity is relational. Its
consiruction is hinged on differences and exclusions. Besides identifying with
those sharing the common origin, we exclude those who we see as different and
lacking in what we are. In the same way, others exclude us and represent us
according to their perception and imagination. Whether their perception of us
affects our self-definition depends on the balance ofpower ofthese two parties.
Therefore, the formation of identity is under ongoing negotiation between
the subjective view ofidentity i.e. who I am i who we are. and objective view of
identity, i.e. who others say we are. The interaction of subjective and objective
factors shapes both our individu2i and collective identity. Instead of only asking
who we are, or where we came from, Sti'art Hall reminds us that we shouki also
ask 'what we might become, how we have been represented and how that bears
on how we might represent ourselves(Hal1, 1996: 4). Identity, thus, is not
something fixed that can be applied to anyone at any time or under any
circumstances. Identity, according to Hall, "belongs to the future as much as to
the past.' (Hall 1994:
394) Our
history plays an important role in defining
ourselves. Nevertheless, our identity is undergoing constant transformations.
Therefore, collective identity is a matter of "becoming" as well as "being"(Hall
1994:394). With the influence ofall the subjective and objective factors, we may
inhabit and put down different identities under different circumstances.
The formation of identity could be seen as a process of exclusion and
power struggle, between the subjective I internal factors and the objective I
external factors.
As Foucault said, "(e)very regime ofrepresentation is a regime
of power formed by fatal couplet power/knowledge". (Hall 1994:394) Identity
changes, depending on the result of the power struggle. Therefore, identity is not
something fixed, already existing but fluid and contingent. It is" subject to the
continuous " play" of history, culthre and power." (Emphasis added) (Hall,
1994:394) History forms the primary shape of collective identity, but the
cimuging world is unceasingly moulding it. As Homi Ehabha said, identity is
'never an apriori, nor a finished product.'(Bhabha i 994:118)
4
To conclude, the nature of identity can be defined as follows:
i.
Identity can be invented. lt
s constructed "within the play of power and
exclusion". (1-lau 1996:5)
2. Identity is not fixed and singular. It is fluid, multiple, relational and in process.
These two ideas help us understand how the Europeans used identity as a tool to
oppress the colonised, and how Africans used it to mobilize nationalist
movements.
Colonial Identit
For
Africans,
individual
and
collective
identities
are
problematic.
Colonialism and slavery disrupted their cultures, along with their values as well
as their collective identities. The ideas of Africa, and who Africans were, were
created by the outsiders -the colonisers -and were imposed on the African. The
force from the external overrode that ofthe internal.
In colonial times, the colonisers justified and secured their conquest by
berefting African ofthe means to defme themselves. They reduced the natives as
uncivilized, inferior and barbaric, and imposed this identity on them. Colonizers
stereotyped the image of Africa and African with their own imagination. Laclaus
claims that ' the constitution ofa social identity is an act ofpower' since,
1f . . . an objectivity manages to partially affIrm itself it is only by repressing that
which threatens it. Derrida has shown how an identity's constitution is always based
on excluding something and establishing a violent hierarchy between the two resultant
poles - man/ woman, etc.
What is peculiar to the second term is thus reduced to the
function of an accident as opposed to the essentiality of the first. lt is the same with
the black-white relationship,
in
which white, of course, is equivalent to 'human being'.
Woman and b1ack' are thus 'maxlc? (i.e. marked terms) in contrast to the unmarked
terms of 'man' and
'wbit&. (Ladau; i990:33)
What made the colonisers most successful was not only that they excluded the
black, made them as others, and set up the binary opposition - black I white, but
also that they inscribed this value on the black's mind, which made them
internalize this stereotype and see themselves in the sanie way. Hall points out
that 'the colonial experience' is traumatic because:
The ways in which black people, black experiences. were positioned and subjected
in the dominant regimes ofrepresentation were the effects of a critical exercise of
cultural power and nonnalisation. Not only, in Said's ' Orientalist' sense, were we
6
constructed as different and other within the categories of know1ede of the West
by those regimes. They had the power to make us see and experience
ourselves as
'Othe?. (Hall 1994: 394)
Emmanuel Obiechina also states that the European imposition of political
control 'involved a conscious or uncOnscious devaluation of the African
culture'(emphasis added)(Obiechina i 995 : i 5) .African's identities, both
individual and collective, were reinvented by the colonisers for oppressing the
blacks.
Frautz Fanon states clearly the resulis of this oppression. If our culture and
history form the basis of our identity, colonialism denies the black's history.
What's more, 'colonialism is not satisfied merely with hiding a people in its grip
and emptying the native's brain of all form and content. By a kind of perverted
logic, it turned to the past of the oppressed people, and distorts, disfigures and
destroys it.'(Fanon 1994:37) The black see everything about the white as
desirable, but his as inferior:
I had to meet the white man's eyes. An unfamiliar weight burdened me. in the white
world the man ofco!or encounters difficulties in the development ofhis bodily schema.
..
I
was battered down by tom-toms carmibalism, intellectual deficiency, fetishism, racial
defects. . . I took niyself f.r off from my own presence. . . What else could it be for me but
an amputation, an excLon, a hemorrhage that spattered my
whole body with black blood?
(Fanon 1967:218)
He hated his body, hoping to adopt white masks that made his blackness vanish,
thus resulting in the schizophrenia ofthe coloniseds identity. The b1ak not only
lost his roots and history, but was also imbued with perverted views of his past
which made him
hate
himself. He turned away from hisr culture and emulated
the supposedly superior European's. Identity is not absolute, but relational. As
7
Ania Loomba comments, 'blackness confirms the white self, but whiteness
empties the black subject.(Loomba 1998:144)
Postcolonial Identity
In the process of decolonisation, nationalist movements aim at destroying
the binary opposition between the coloniser and colonised, regain the dignity of
people and reinventing their identity. Instead of being told who they are,
blacks struggle to get back the power and right to define themselves. They try to
reverse the situation in colonial times by making the force of the self greater
than that ofthe other.
Many literary and cultural critics believe that the coloriised's history,
destroyed in otothalisni, needed tc be rehabilitated, as it is the main source
and basis for constructing their identity. Amilcar Cabrai claimed that
(t)he
national liberation of a people is the regaining of the historical personality of
that people, it is their return to history. ' (Boehmer i 995:
194)
Fanon shared the
same view. He said that their past could give them back their value as it proves
that they also have culture. Colonialism., according to him, 'has never ceased to
maintain that the Negro is a savage. . .when he (the Negro) decides to prove that
be has a culture and to behave like a cultured person, comes to realize that
history points out a well-defined path to him: he must demonstrate that a Negro
culture exists.' (Fanon 1993: 38)
To cancel their stereotype, they start rewriting the history of the
pre-colonial period, which was once blank in colonialism, in the form of fiction
poetry, literary epic, etc. Boelmier explains the importance of these nationalist
historical writings by saying that they were first, for control:
assuming
control - taldiig charge of the past, of seif-defmition, or of political destiny',
being the subject of their history, getting back the chance of representing
themselves and governing the course oftheir own lives' (Boebmer 1995: 196).
Second, for self-making: recreating and preserving a disappearing, threatened,
or neglected way of life', which helps 'to project communal wholeness, to enact
nationalist wish- fulfillment in text, and to provide rote-models' (197). Third, for
form-giving: giving structure to history, which helps not only to impart
'coherence to a fragmented history, but also help organize and clarify foundation
moments in the anti-imperial movement: the Initial emergence of political
self-consciousness, say, or the explosion of resistance.' (1 98) Al these were
important not only for reinventing black identity, but also mobilizing
anti-imperial movements.
The search for a common history, or, in flail's term, ' a sort of collective
"one true self" is essential for postcolonial identity. However, the colonised
cannot simply dig the past to search for their lost identity because the rationale of
this kind of search is based on a false assumption: identity is absolute, fixed,
unchangeable and is waiting to be rediscovered. As we have discussed before,
cultural identity ' is not a fixed essence at all, lying unchanged outside history
and culture' and thereby ' it is not a fixed origin to which we can make some
final and absolute Return.' (Hall 1994:395) In other words, there is no a fixed
and pure origin for people to search for or return to. Hall adds that '(t)he past
continues to speak to us. But it no longer addresses us as a simple, factual "past",
since our relation to it, like the child's relation to the mother, is always-already
"after the break'" (Hall 1 994:395), after the colonialism in which the colonised
was made as Other. Thus, even if there is a pure origin the burden of Fanon's
Black Skin, White Masks
makes the return impossible. Together with social
lo
changes, people nowadays find it difficult to totally identify with the values of
the tribal past, as well as the tribal identity.
Homi Bhabha also believes that cultural identity is not merely based on the
pre-given, irreducible, historical cultural traits. As for Fanon's insistence on
asserting their cultural traditions and retrieving their repressed history, Bliabha
comments that 'he is far too aware of the dangers of the fixity and fetishism of
identifies within the calcification of colonial cultures to recommend that "roots"
be struck in the celebratory romance of the past or by homogenizing the history
of the present.'(Bhabha 1994:9) The coloniser and the colonised could not be
viewed as two separate groups that defme themselves independently. Thus, only
reclaiming the history could not help construct their identity. Only through the
negotiation of different cultural performances could cultural meaning be
produced:
Ternis of culturas engagement, whether antagonistic or affihiative, are produced
performatively. The representation of difference must not be hastily read as the
reflection of pre-given ethnic or cultural traits set in the fixed tablet of tradition. The
social aricu1ation of difference, from the minority perspective. is a complex. on-going
negotiation that seeks to authorize cultural hybridities that emerge in moments of
historical transformation. (Bhabha 1994: 2)
11
Chapter two: Achebe's views of identity
Achebe's purposes of wrig
African people did nt hear of culture for the first time from Europeans; that their
societies were not mindless but frequently had a philosophy ofgeat depth and value and
beauty, that they had poetry, and above all, they had digiity. It is this dignity that many
African peop'e aU but iost during the co1oiia1 period and it is this that they must now
regain. The worst thing that can happen to any people is the loss of their dignity and
self-respect. The writers duty is to help them regain it by showing them in human terms
what happened to them, what they lost. (Achebe 1973:8)
The above passage reflects clearly Achebe's purpose of writiu. Achebe
understands the power of identity, which was once used by the European as a
tool to devalue them. Rather than sit back and defined by the European, Achebe
takes part in the power struggle of iden.tification, aiming at regaining culture of
his people, and, more importantly, their dignity.
Achebe expresses agony at how the African is represented in Western
literature. According to Hammond and Jablow, African characters in Western
literature are all limited to a few stock figures (and) are never completely
huinan'(Achebe 2000:47) lu Joseph Conrad's Heart
of Darkness, the image of
Africa is projected as "the other world", the antithesis of Europe and therefore of
civilization, a place where man's
vaunted intelligence and refinement are finally
mocked by triumphant bestiality.'(Acbebe 1989:3) This othering was once
dominant and generally accepted in the world. Literature played an important role
in promoting this.
Since his youth, Achche realized the power of
words
which, to him, are not
just tools but weapons. (Achebe 2000:78) While reading Conrad's
Heart of
12.
Darkness, Achebe could not see himself as an African to begin with. He took
sides with the white men and saw the natives as savage. From this reading
experience, he understood how naitatives have absolute power that can even put
you in the wrong crowd. Achebe decided to use the same weapon to get his voice
heard and educate both African and Euopean readers in the mie value of African
culture. Joseph Cary's Mister Johnson, in which an African is portrayed as a
figure who slavishly adores his colonist boss, and even feels grad to be shot by
him, provided Acbebe with a starting point:
I know around '51,52. I was quite certain that I was going to try my hand at writing,
and one ofthe things that set me thinking was Joyce Cary's novel, set in Nigeria,
Johnson,
Mister
which was praised so much, and it was clear to me that it was a most
superficial picture of- not ofthe country - but even of the Nigerian character, and so I
though ifthis was famous then perhaps someone ought to try and look at this from the
inside. (Innes 1990:12)
This novel made Achebe determine to offer a "look" from the "inside", to tell his
people and the world who Africans really are, to wrestle with the hegemonie
western-imposed identity to "help my society regain belief in itself and put away
the complexes of the years of denigration and self abasement" (Achebe
1976:58-59), and reinvent a new identity.
Achebe shares Sbiart Hall's concept that identity is something about the past
and the future. It is incomplete and is still in process. In the interview with Kwame
Apppiah, Achebe said " It is of course true that the African identity is still in the
making. There isn't a final identity that is African." However, it does not mean that
we do not need to take our history into account while consthicting a new identity.
Like other nationalist writers, Achebe recognizes the importance of rehabilitating
their once-destroyed history. His first novel, Things Fall Apart, is set in Igholand,
the eastern region of present-day Nigeria, at the turn of the
20th
century, i.e. the
13
moment prior to and after the arrival of the European. His exploration of this
history, nevertheless, does not aim at searching for the Igbo's lost identity, which is
no longer applicable to the present world. He believes that Igbo culture is able to
give modem Nigeria a set ofvalues shared among the African in pre-colonial time,
which is the basis of his collective identity. History therefore is an important
element for the creation of an African identity:
Just as we have a front and a back. we have a histoiy which is our back, and our front
which is may be our future, and our present is somehow in between these two, and you
cannot deal with a total experience without taking this into account. In our situation it is
especially important because our history has been interfered with seriously. grievously. In
fact, it has been said that three
or four
hundred years ago we were taken out of our
history and dumped into somebody else's history. We lost the initiative - the historical
initiative -and therefore for us it is a matter of life and death that we recapture that
initiative, and we situate
ourselves again in
the mainstream of our own thought and
feeling and experience and perception. This is why it is very important that we
understand who we are. When people talk about their identity, it's a word which is so
often used today that it has almost become a cliché, but it is nevertheless a very
important concept. You must know who you are before you can deal with any problem.
(interview with Rosemary Colmer, Lindfors 1997:58)
Therefore, besides telling people that Africa has a culture of dignity and human
complexity, Achebe's other purpose in recreating history is to know who
Africans are for the production ofthe new identity.
History lets the African know who he and what his culthre is. Culture gives
him values that form his collective identity. In order to know 'who you are before
you can deal with any problem', Achebe "look(s) back and tr(ies) to find out
where we went
ong, where the rain began to beat us." (Achche i 976 :58)
Achebe avoids glorifying the history but reveals the true picture, both the good
and bad side of the culture, in his novels. Putting aLl the blame on colonialism is
not, to him, an appropriate attitude. The colonised themselves should also bear
14
part of the responsibility. To form a new identity for the present world, Achebe
believes that they have to look at the old values, ¡cave out the bad ones. and
modify those good values for the present.
Achebe's novels, Things Fall Apart. A
Savannah, are
Man ofthe People and Anthills of the
written in different times under different circumstances. Therefore,
the problems addressed and emphasis placed are not the same. Different as they
are, the purpose is consistent - to produce a new identity for post-colonial
social reform. Achebe's
Things Fall Apart
People and Anthills afilie Savannah,
stresses the tribal past in A Man of the
Achebe focuses on the present political and
social situation, stressing two important elements in constructing identity:
'reflection' and 'modification. With these three novels, his narrative reflection
on the processes of creating identity is completed.
15
Thig± Fall Apart
To expose the false European judgement on African culture, Achebe
details the social structure of the village Urnuofia, its exchange system and
beliefs, etc. in
Things Fall
Apart. Different from the Western political system,
we can see in the novel that the Igba is a people with no kings or chiefs.
However, it does not mean that they had no system at alL Achebe argued in an
interview with Jonathan Cott that it was not because the rgbos 'didn't evolve to
the stage of have kings and kingdoms' (Lindfors 1997:77), but because they
'didn't want someone else to speak for them. Therefore, they preferred small
communities to large ones so as to avoid the problem that "somebody says he's
speaking on your behaLf but you don't know who he is." (Lindfors 1997:78)
Achebe claimed that it is the Igbos' political identity. They managed to operate
an efficient quasi-democratic government. In the novel' we can see that the
government consists of the cultural and traditional Council of E[ders (Ndichie),
Council of Masquerades (Egwugwu), the Oracles and their Chief Priests who
link up people and the gods. They also have a set of laws and rules that people
abide by. Punishments will be inflicted on those who break the laws.
The market is important for Igbo as it is 'a sign of wealth and of hidden
cosmological power: the market place is the field in which goods are exchanged
and meanings are constructed and communicated.'(Giknth 1991:35) It is so busy
that
Cjf
you threw up a grain of sand it would not find a way to fall to earth
again," (TFA) (Achebe 198&79) lgbos measure
their wealth by the number of
wives, children and, more important, yams. Yanis is the key to understanding the
Igbo cultural formation. Yams represent power or, in Okonkwo's word, manliness.
16
The orte "who could feed his family on yams from one harvest to another was a
'very great man indeed. (TFA 23) Therefore to the Igbos, yams, "the king of
crops, was a man's crop."(TFA 16)
Religion plays an important role in the Igbos' life. Many rules and
traditions are ascribed to their religion. The wishes of the gods, communicated
through Diviners, are known as Oracles, which they must comply with. With all
these systems and rules, Achebe demonstrates a civil and ordered society and a
collective Igbo identity premised on values ofhard work, faith and strength.
Achebe depicts all these pictures with plain writing style, which reveals,
according to Simon Gikandi, his intention of stressing the everyday ordinariness
of Igbo life in order to contest
"the representation of African in the novels of
Conrad and Caiy who have the propensity to represent the continent as either a
blank space or a monstrous presence." (Gikandi 1991 :27) Though the social and
eicono33ic systemz of the Igho are different from. the western world, it does not
mean that theirs are inferior or less efficient.
Besides drawing people's attention to the good side of the culture, the
problems of the culture are also Achebe's concern. In Things Fall Apart,
Okorikwo is portrayed as the representative of the Igbo. Achebe recounts the
weakness of Okonkwo, symbolizing that of the Igbo leadership, which
undermines the community.
At the beginning ofthe novel, Aebebe presents us the image of Okonkwo:
Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond. His fame
'7
rested on soìd personal achievements. As a young mari of eighteen he had brought
honour to his village by throwing Amaliuze the Cat. Amalinze was the great wrestler
who for seven years was
unbeaten, from T.Jmuofia to Mbaino. He was called the Cat
because his back would never touch the earth. lt was this man that Okon.kwo threw in a
fight which the old man agreed was one of the fiercest since the founder of their town
engaged a spirit ofthe wild for seven days and seven nights. (L'FA 3)
Okonkwo is a man of strength. He earns a reputation as a wrestler admired by the
people. Besides, he is a warrior as he bad taken the heads of five victims at the age
of twenty-one. His weafth, including two barns full of yams, three wives and two
titles, all symbolizes his success. It is not difficult to see that Okonkow spends his
whole life achievirg things the society highiy praises and recogrizes. Co11eti''e
identity forms the basis of our individual identity, and Okonkow's embodiment of
Igbo value is a perfect illustration.
However, Okonkwo is not such a strong man as he appears. In fact, he lives
in his father's shadow in his whole life:
1-lis whole life was dominated by fear, the fear al failure and of weakness. t was deeper
and more intimate than the fear of evil and capricious gods and of magic, the fear of the
forest, and the forces of nature, malevolent, red in tooth and claw. Okonkows fear was
greater than these. lt was not external but lay deep within himself. lt was the fear of
himseff. lestheshouid bc found to resemblehis father. (TFA 9-10)
Okonkwo's fear stems from his father's sensual personality, which he considers
weak:
In his day he was lazy and improvident and was quite incapable of thinking about
tomorrow. If any money came his way and lt seldom did, he immediately bought gourds
of palm-wine, called round his neighbours and made merry. . .Unoka was, of course, a
debtor, and he owed every neighbour sorne money, from a few cowries to quite substantial
amounts.
He was tall but very thin and had a slight stoop. He wore a haggard and mournful look
except when he was drinking or playing on his flute. (TFA 3-4)
Okonkwo's father, Unoka, is a musician and a poet. Music, to Okonkwo and most
ofthe lgbo's peopl; is a feminine thing. IJnoka gains no title and veneration in his
18
whole life and Okonkwo, even when he is small, 'had resented his father's failure
and weakness, and even now he still remembered how he had suffered when a
playmate had told him that his father was agbala." (TFA IC)) Getting rid of the
shame of having such a father, Okonkwo "hates everything that his father Unoka
had loved. One ofthose things was gentleness and another was idleness." (TFA I O)
Unoka's failure affects Okonkwo deeply. He cares about how people see him,
worrying that he is considered to be weak, like his father. Therefore, he becomes
rigid, and tries his very best to do what the culture regards as heroic, and at last he
goes too far. His failure is attributed to this fear. Achebe here shows the close
interaction between the individual and collective identity:
It is sigl]ficant in the drawing of characters that even after the individual identity has
been established, the definition ofhis individuaUty is often deeply influenced by fctors
outside hmse1f, factors which are lodged in society and the histoty of the character.
(Obiechina 1975: 93)
In his
whole life, Okonkwo commits to the rules and the tradition of the
society. However, his personal factor, i.e. the fear, prevents him from realizing
that culture is flexible and changing. It is his inflexibility that Achebe wants to
disclose. He executed the boy Ikemefuna who calls him father because "he was
afraid of being thought weak" (TFA 43), even though his friend Obierika asks
him not to participate in the killing. Despite his experiencing depression
afterwards, he rather suppresses his emotion than admit his fault. Later, Obierika
explains to him that ' it is a kind of action for which the goddess wipes out whole
families'(TFA 46). Okonkwo defends himself by saying that 'The Earth cannot
punish rue for obeying her messenger. . . A child's fingers are not scalded by a
piece ofhot yarn which its mother puts into its palms.'(TFA 46-47) Obierika can
see the loophole of the law here, but Okonkwo's rigidity prevents him from
doing so.
The different reactions of Uchendu and Okonkwo to the killing of the
villagers in Abame also reveal Okonkwo's failure to adapt. Hearing the disaster
and death, Uchendu is dismayed and said, cNever kill a man who says nothing.
Those men of Abame were fools. What did they know about the man?'(TFA 98)
In contrast to Tjchendu's response, Okonkwo said, 'Abame people were weak
and foolish. Why did they not fight back? Had they no guns and machetes?"
(TFA 124) Okonkwo fails to notice that the society is more flexible than before,
to the point that the arrival of a foreign culture may be translated into the terms
of a native worldview After the seven-year exile, Okonkwo finds himself unable
to face the altered, new Umuofia.
Okonkwo rejects flexibility and compromise. His resistance to change stems
from his fear, resulting in alienating himself from the society. This is exactly the
problem Achebe wants to point out: 'Okonkwo 'is "betrayed" because he's doing
exactly what the culture preaches. But, you see, the culture is devious and
flexibles
because if it wasn't, it wou'dn't survive.' (interview with ifiodun Jeyifo,
Lindfors 1997: 118) And 'I think in his time the strong men were those who did
not bend, and I think this was a fault in the culture itself.' (Interview with Lewis
Nkosi and Wole Soythka, Lindors 197:11) 1dentity a we have mentioned
before, is changing. In TJmuofia, two different cultures encounter and contest,
giving rise to the changes ofthe society.
Okonkwo's failure ofadjusting his self
to fit the changing society and the society's failure to nurture and encourage
individuai change leads to his liagedy.
In fact, the rigidity of individuai identity is not the only problem Achebe
intended to address. The faults in the collective identity are also displayed in the
novel. The unity of the society can no longer be maintained by the old set of
values, and the society is bound to disintegrate. When a new
cuiftre comes,
people find it difficult to resist. The external force is greater thai the internal one,
which accelerates the breakdown ofthe culture and society of TJmuofia.
The exclusion of women from the culture is one of the problems. Gikazidi
argues that women are important in some sorts of occasions, e.g. wedding
ceeniony and so it proves the harmonious relationship between men and women.
However, we do find several scenes in which women are being excluded and
even abused. That Okonkow beats his second wife and nearly shoots her is one-
Whenever communal ceremonies are held, (i)t was clear from the way the
crowd stood or sat that the ceremony was for men. There were many women, but
they looked on from the fringe like outsiders.' (TFA 62) However, women are not
the only things they marginalise. The code of Umuofia regards qualities such as
mercy and gentleness as weak and feminine and should be repressed. On the
other hand, it reveres strength and power, which is something masculine. They
believe too much in manliness and look down upon all things related to feminine.
Therefore, the collective identity eccludes all 'feminine' elements. ft is this
imbalance between male and female principles that engenders the collapse of the
society. limes sees the sacrifice of Ikemeflina as an example showing the
societys inability of maintaining a harmonious balance between male and fem1e
principles. And the death of Ikemefuna does provoke Obierika's and Nwoye's
doubt about their culture.
21
Obierika is a man who thought about things.' (TFJII 87) Compared with
Okonkwo, he is much more flexible. He raises a series of questions about the
rutes
f the society after Okonkow dil1s a c1axsman inathrertenily an
ieeds to
flee from the clan:
When the will of the goddess had been done. he sat down in his obi and mourned his
friend's calamity. Why should a man suffer so grievously for an offence he had
committed inadvertently? But although he thought for a long time he found no answer.
He was merely led into greater complexities. He remembered his wife's twin chiidren
whom he had thrown away. What crime had they committed? The Earth had decreed that
they were an offence ori the land and must be destroyed. And f the cian did riot exact
punishment for an offence against the great goddes
her wrath was loosed on all the land
and not just on the offender. As the elders said if one Enger brought oil it soiled the
others. (TFA 87)
Obierika's reflection reveals his doubt about the justice of the goddess. To hixn
the twins and Okonkwo have committed no crime aiid do not deserve the
punishment.
We can also find the same conflict between the society and the individual in
Nwoye's case. When Nwoye, Okonkwo's son, is young, he likes the stories told
by his mother about Earth and Sky. However, his father said that this kind of
stories is for foolish women and children. In order to please his father, in order to
be a man Nwoye suppresses his emotion and pretends to enjoy his father's
stories about tribal wars. The death of Ikemefiina, to Nwoye, seems "tO give way
inside him, like the snapping ofa tightened bow." (TFA 43) He cannot figure out
why his father kills &eniefuna a friend whom he admires. This feeling descends
earthenware
on him again ori the day when he sees the innocent twins " put in
with the
pots and thrown away in the forest." (TFA 43) Nwoye cannot identify
tribe and refuse.s to coixie to terms with the social values. It drives him to sever
himselffrom the society.
Nwoye suppresses al! bis doubt until he comes across Cbristinity, a foreign
culture. Christianity promotes God's tender, love and mercy, which is considered
to be feminine by Okonkwo and the society. It makes no sense to Okonkwo and
other villagers. However, to Nwoye, it is what he longs for:
But there was a young lad who had been captivated. I-lis name was Nwoyc, Okonkwos
first son. It was not the mad logic ofTrinity which captivated him. He did not understand
it. lt was the poetry of the new re1.gio, soethirg ft!t n the narow. Th hynrn about
brothers who sat in darkness and in fear seemed to answer a vague and persistent
question that haunted his young soul - the question of the twins ciying n the bush and
the question ofikemefiina who was killed. 11e felt a reliefwithin as the hymn poured into
his parched soul. The words of the hymn were like drops of frozen rain melting on the
dry palate ofthe panting earth. Nwoy&s callow mind was greatly puzzled. (TM 39)
As Stuart Hall says, identity is relational. Tbrou.gh the negotiation of different
cultures, Nwoye sees what the problems of their culture are, and what they lack.
He decides tojoin the new religion. However, Nwoye is not the only one.
These OutCaSts, or osu, seeing that the new religion welcomed twins and such
abominations, thought that it was possible that they would also be welcomed. (TFA t Il)
The outcasts who arc unable to be full members of the community find that the
white man's new religion may be able to turn them from being weak to strong.
They cut themselves off from their own society and couvert to Christianity. Not
only outcasts, but women and even men with titles also join it. (TFA 123) Facing
this Oberika feels helpless:
It is already too late (for fighting these white men
and driving them from the land). . . Our own men and our sons have joined the
ranks of the stranger. They have joined his religion and they help to upho'd his
government.' (TFA 124) It is 'the first time Umuofia, whose unity was its life,
was divided against itself.
(Stock 1978:89)
23
Rather than the conflicts between the two worlds, the conflicts between the
individual and the society idenlity form the cracks in the first piace. Before
colothalism, when westerners just arrive, cross-cultural conflicts only act as
catalysts triggering the thsintegration of the society. Gikandi adds that it is not
mere1y the disintegration of a culture, but aIso the fundameutal ideology ou
which it was built - the appeal to unity and totality.' Later on, when the
Ijmuoifa's scheme of meanings, i.e. the symbolic scheme which invokes the
unity of the cultural order is colonised, the function of ts culture is rapidly
eroded.' (Gikandi I 991 :35) The social identity no longer gets recognition and
thereby cannot hold the society together
To initiate social reform, Achebe believes that the chaxiges of social identity
should take place first. The colonial burden should be put aside and a new social
identity should be born. Achebe displays both the good sides and the bad sides of
the culture in this novel, hoping to get rid of people's feeling of ìnfeñority and
assure them their right of asserting themselves, plus reminding them the need of
leaving
out the
bad elements
in
their
culture
ideitity-reconstruction. With the teachiti of Okonkow's
in the
process
story, Achebe pins
of
high
hope on the people and the society.
24
A Man of the Peo,,le
Achebe raises the people's awareness ofthe past in Things Fall Apart, and
in A Man ofthe People their
published iii i 966m
SX
understanding of the present.
A Man ofthe People is
years after the independence of Nigeria,, in which African
got back the right to rule their land. flowever, the disintegration of traditional
values makes people put stress only on individua1ism, and the pursuit of
materialism which have brought corruption, strife, cynicism' .(Agovi i 988:193)
The society is beset with these problenis. Peopl&s lives are no better than they
used to be in colonial times. Acheb&s disillusionment
th the independent
nation and bis anger at neo-colonialism are exhibited in the novel. Achebe finds
no reason to go on exploring the past for mainly giving people dignity. Kolawole
Ogtmgbesan observes that '(he)ere (in A
Man ofthe People)
he has forsaken his
earlier duty to give back to his people their dignity. Now he focusses his gaze on
the evils inflicted on the African societies not by an alien races, but by the
Africans themselves.'(Ogungbesan 1974:46) Similar to Things Fall Apart.
Achebe attempts to 'find where the rain began to beat us' in this novel.
Stuart Hall states that there is no absolute return to our origin, especially
'after the break (Hall 1994:395). This is the case of Nigeria. Even though
colonialism is over, the egacy of colonialism is apparent. It is fully revealed
through the cases of the two protagonists, Nanga, a popular Minister of Culture,
and Odili, a idealistic teacher in A
Man of the People.
Nanga on the one hand
attacks those African with Western education: 'From today we must watch and
guard our hard-won freedom jea1ously
Never again must we trust our destiny
and the destiny of Africa to the hybrid class of Western-educated and snobbish
25
intellectuais who Wül not hesitate to
pattage. . . '(MOP)(Acbebe 1967:6).
sell
their mothers for
a mess of
On the other band, he feels proud ofhis
the
doctorate degree from a small college in the United States.
The honour of the
tribal title is now replaced by the title from the West. Moreover
he
i1s his house
with things made in the West. ile prefers to spealc English,
and his children as
well. His act ofsending his children
to an expensive European private school run
by European ladies speaking impeccab'e English is another sign. Nanga allows
a
young American couple to call him by his Christian name, which would have
'made him go rampaging mad' (MOP 49) if it had come from Odili or his own
people. The farcical episode about the home-made coffee which his party exhorts
people to buy but is considered to be poisonous by the Minister as he drinks only
the one made in Europe shows the readers the hypocrisy ofthose in power.
Besides the n1lthg cJas, the intellectual, represented by Odili,
also
possesses colonial attitudes. His willingness to become 'partly Americanized'
(MOP 50) can be proved when he allows strangers to call him by his first name.
Odili
admires Max because
of
his
'westernisation'
and
having
a
western-educated girlfriend, Eunice. Nanga has once described Odili as a 'black
white-man'.(MOP 37)
In fact, this phenomenon is not only confined to the ruling class and
intellectual class, but also the people in general. The symbol of success in this
new society is no longer yams, but the motor car, a symbol ofthe Western world.
Odili's father despises bis son's low-paid job: 'He would. . . tell me (Odili) for the
hundredth time to leave "this foolish teaching" and look for a decent job in the
government and buy myselfa car' (MOP 35). Odili also says that In our country
a long American car driven by a white-uniformed chauffeur and flying a
ministerial flag could pass through the eye of a needk. '
(MOP 65) Tn
post-colonial times, African still fail to eradkate Fanons burden - black skin,
white masks. They are not able or are unwilling to fully identify themselves as
African. Instead, they would rather be cpartty Americanized' or be 'black white
people' Even though colonialism is over and the promotion of Africanization is
.
vigorous, still the people are at the mercy of the external force, the influence of
the West.
The haunting of the colonialism represses a new African cultural identity,
which is the root cause of the social problems Aehebe attempts to unmask in this
novel. The African leaders, like Nanga, still kowtow to the west. Africans, to
Nanga, are inferior and so he does not identity with them
.
The people's need is
not on his agenda. As for the people, being used to the colonial power structure
based on 'non-communication, on a denial of the
linguistic
act'
(iair
1993:108-9), they accept the idea of their inferiority and the inequality between
the people and leaders, and this acceptance produces apathy and indifference to
the society:
' "Let them eat" was the people's opinion, "after all when white men used to do all the
eating did we commit suicide?" Of course not. And where is the all-powerflul white
man today? He came, he ate and he went. But we are still around. The important then is
to stay alive. . .Besides, ifyou survive, who knows? it may be your turn to eat tomorrow.
Your sou may bring borne your share.' (MOP 161-162)
Living in such a society, the traditional values are replaced by the new ones: the
pursuit of materialism and individualism. People do not even see themselves as
'one true self' or 'one people', or in other words, as sharing a common culture
and identity. Moreover, social development leads to the emergence of cities and
the disappearance of villages. The traditional rural values, therefore,
are also
difficuft to preserve. Without the
shared culture, how could post-colonial
Africans see themselves as a collective self?
With the destruction of their culture in colonialism and Fanon's burden, the
Africans are caught in between. They are unwilling to be African but unable to
be American or European. Together with the unwholesome values,
like
con-uption, materialism and hypocrisy being rife in the society, their collective
identity is problematic.
Achebe shares the same view. He points out the problem of the erosion of
culture:
A man's position in society was usually determined by his wealth. All the four titles in
my village were taken - not given -and each had its own price. But in those days
wealth meant the strength of your arm. No one became rich by swindling the
community or stealing government money. In fct a man who was guilty of theft
inirnediately lost all his titles. Today we have kept the materialism and thrown away
the spirituality which should keep it in check. (Achebe 1973:9)
To a new nation, Achebe realizes ' (o)ne ofthe most distressing ills which afflict a
new nation is a confusion of value. We sometimes make the mistake of talking
about values as though they were fixed and eternal. . . Ofcourse values are relative
and in a constant state of flux.' (Aebebe 1973:9) The confusion ofvalue gives rise
to the problematic collective identity. Therefore, facing this problem, the solution
is to re-establish the values so as to reinvent new social identity.
However, as the social structure is based not on villages but cities in
post-colonial times, the community is much larger than before. The social code
in the village no longer works in the city. Morality can still mobilize the masses
28
in the village, mirrored in the case of Josiah who steals a bHnd beggar's stick:
Within one week Josiah was ruined; no man, woman, or child went near his
shop. Even Strangers and mammy-wagon passengers making but a brief stop at
the market were promptly warned off. Before the month was out, the
shop-and-bar closed for good and Josiah disappeared - for a whi1e.(MQP 97)
Yet, it is unlikely that the masses will take any action if it happens in the city.
Achebe therefore resorts to changes in individual identity as the first step in
arousing social transformation.
The change of Odili's individual identity is a demonstration. Different from
Things Fall Apart,
Achebe omits the omniscient narrator and lets Odili narrate
his story. in order to show his false judgement on the culture and how he attempts
to correct himself. Similar to Okonkwo, Odill's conflicts between individual
identity and the collective identity are detailed in the noveL In contrast to
Okonkwo, Nanga tries to distant himself from the society. He is discontented
with the values which encourage self-interest and finds it difficult to identify
with the common people. His sense of superiority to them could be seen from the
following passage:
As I stood in one comer of that vast tumult waiting for the arriva! of the minister I felt
intense bitterness wefling up in my mouth. Here were silly, ignorant viIlgers dancing
themseZves lame and waiting to blow off their gunpowder in honour of one of those who
bad started the country off down the slopes of' inflation. I wished for a miracle, for a voice
ofthunder, to hush this ridiculous festival and tefl the poor contemptible people one or two
truths. But of course it would be quite useless. They were not
Only
ignorant but
cyncaL(MOP 2)
He even looks down upon those from the ruling class as they use their position to
enrich themselves.(MOP 2) Owing to his unwillingness 'to lick any Big Man's
boots', he takes a teaching job in a bush, private school instead of a smart civil
29
service job in the city with car, free housing, etc.,' so as to give himself a certain
amount of autonomy' . (MOP I 9)
Odili seems ari idealistic and honest young man. In fact, Odili is vulnerable.
He tries to cut himself off from the society but
fails
to notice that he is actually
pat-t of it. He is no different from the common people he rejects. Though he
dislikes Nanga, he still accepts Nanga's invitation to spend his holidays with him
in the capital and see if Nanga could do something for his application of
scholarship for overseas studies. He loathes corruption, but he takes advantage of
his friendship with Nanga; in other words, he is nepotic. He cannot help
acknowledging that the common saying 'it didnt matter what
you knew but who
you knew' is 'no idle talk'. (MOP 19) His astonishment about Nanga's
comfortable and luxurious residence - I wa simply hypnotized by the luxury of
the great suite assigned to me. . .1 had to confess that if I were at that moment
made a minister I would be most anxious to remain one for ever. ' (MOP4 1 -2) shows that though he scorns those who are materialistic, be is in fact the same as
them. He minds how people see him. His despise on Nanga dispels at once while
Nanga hails him as a long-lost son before a large audience. His recognition of the
writer Jalio, turns to 'a poor opinion of him' once Jalfo ' replied hello and took
my hand but obviously he did not remember my name and didn't seem to care
particularly. (MOP 69) He disdains hypocrites but be is one of them. Odili
refuses to be one ofthe people; however, to his surprise, he is already part of it.
Odii neither accepts the society because of the morally unacceptable values,
nor believes the traditional values as he thinks them antiquated. Odili's conflicts
between the self and the society, plus the corruption of society are caused by the
30
erosion of tradition. In the light of social change, Achebe believes it is important
to lead readers to understand traditional values from a new angle. Through
Odilis reflection and repentance, Achebe achieves it.
Though Odili is willing to be 'partly Americanized', he is discontented with
the westerner's superticial knowledge of African culture. At Jean's party, he
corrects an Englishman's misinterpretation of a sculpture. His fury is stined up
when Jean drives him through the back street, which makes him feel 'ashamed
about my
country's capital city.'(MOP 60) His pride is attacked
:
' Who the hell
did she think she was to laugh so self-righteously. Wasnt there more than enough
in her own countiy to keep
her laughing all
her days? Or crying ifshe preferred it?
(MOP 61) 11e learns from these two incidents the difficulty ofjudging a culture
that he has not participated in directly. More importantly, he becomes more
protective about his African society.
After Nanga 'steals' his girlfriend, Odili decides to take revenge by joining
a new political party, the Common People's Convention, headed by Max and
seducing Edna, Nanga's second wife. However, his love for Edia is generated,
which fmally makes him separate it from his revenge. The bicycle accident
shows his care for Edna: 'I think her crying was probably due to hurt pride
because the food lying on the road showed how poor her family was. But I may
be wrong. At the time, however, I was greatly upset.'
(MOP 105). Odili is
concerned about Edna's feeling and worries whether she is humiliated by ber
'poverty'. To Odili, a proud young man who used to feel contempt for the
common people, it is a big emotional step. Later on, he finds himself in love with
Edna and no loiger uses her as a tool to fight against Nanga.
31
In his political activities, Odili begins to show his maturity. Odili realizes
that integrity is an effective weapon to fight against corruption. His refusal to be
tempted by the bride offered by Nanga for an exchaxge of his quitting the
election is not due to bis revenge against Nanga but his morality Therefore, he is
deeply disturbed by Maxs act of accepting the bride but refusing to honour the
agreement. Odili fears that Max's action hadjeopardised our moral position, our
ability to inspire that kind of terror which I had seen so clearly in Nanga's eyes
despite all his grandiloquent bluff, and which in the end was our society's only
hope ofsalvation.' (MOP 144)
Odili also learns the value of some social codes that are preserved. He is
impressed by his father's refusal to sign Nanga's document proving his
dissociation himself from his son's kinatic activities, and his father's words 'our
people have said that a man of worth never gets up to unsay what he said
yesterday. I received your friends in my house and I am not going to deny it'.
(MOP 152) Though be finds it obsolete, '(y)ou (Odili's father) do not belong to
this age, old man. Men of worth nowadays simply forget what they said
yesterday', he realizes that he has never really been close enough to his father to
understand him (MOP 1 52). The implication is that he has never been close
enough to traditional values. Odili shows his recognition of and respect for
certain traditional values
With all these experiences, in the end, Odili asks himself about his own
political motives: 'Having got that far in my self-analysis I had to ask myself one
question. How important was my political activity in its won right? It was
difficult to say; things seemed so mixed up; my reveuge, my new political
ambition and the girl. And perhaps it was just as well that my motives should
entangle and reinforce one another. (MOP 121) But one thing we can be sure is
that what motivates him to go on attending the political campaign and loving
Edna is not his revenge any longer. Now his genuine political ambition is to
destroy Nanga and corruption: 'Although I had little hope of winning Chief
Nanga's seat, it was necessary nonetheless to fight and expose him as much as
possibl& (MOP 121) Nanga wins the election at last, but it does not deter Odili
.
from achieving his mission -to debunk Nanga. In Nanga's inaugural campaign
meeting. Odili grasps the last chance:
liar.
. .
I come to tell your people that you are a
' (MOP 157). His idealism, coupled with his experience and maturity,
moves him to fight against Nanga in public. This selfless act and his willingness
to sacrifice himself are unthinkable at the beginning of the novel when he is still
a naïve and prejudiced young man who stays away from the society so as to
enjoy his autonomy.
At the end of the novel, Odii sees the wisdom of the village: 'My father's
words struck me because they were the very same words the villagers of Anata
had spoken of Josiah, the abominated trader. Only in their case the words had
meaning. The owner was the village, and the village had a mind; it could say no
to sacrilege. But in the affairs of the nation there was no owner, the laws of the
village became powerless.' (MOP i 66-1 67) In this new society, the community
is so big that the law ofthe village becomes powerless. The case ofhow villagers
isolate Josiah together can no longer be found in cities. Justice is left to the
individual to fight for, like what Eunice does for Max: Max was avenged not by
the people's collective will but by one solitary woman who loved him. Had his
33
spirit waited for the people to demand redress it
would have been waiting still, in
the rain and out in the sun.' (MOP 167) It sounds
so pessimistic as Odili goes on:
But he (Max) was lucky. And I
honestly believe that in the
regime which inspired the
put away safely in his gut
don1t mean it to shock or to sound clever. For I do
at-dripping, gummy, eat-and let-eat regime just ended
-a
common saying that a man could only e sure ofwhat he had
or, in language ever more suited to the times: 'you chop, me
self I chop. palaver finish';
a regime in which you saw a fellow cursed in the morning
for stealing a blind man's stick and later in the evening saw him again mounting the
altar of the new shrine in the
presence of all the people to whisper into the ear of the
chiefcelebrant - in such a regime, I say, you died a good death ifyour life had inspired
someone to come forward and shoot your murderer in the chest - without asking to be
paid.' (MOP 167)
However, Aehebe reminds us that 'if you were convinced that it was absolutely
hopeless, then you would just drink and wait for your death. But the fact that you
are talking about it implies some optimism that somebody may listen, that there
is still a possibility for change, so it is not entirely pessimistic.' (interview with
Ernest and Pat Emenyonu, Lindfors 1997: 39)
Though t is not OdIi who makes Nanga step do, he has tried his best to
'expose him (Nanga) as much as possible.' People's apathy nurtures Nanga.
Therefore, it is important for the individual to take action to change himself and
or herself first, like Odili standing against corruption and Eunice fighting back
for justice, especially in such a society where the people are indifferent. Only
through the power ofthe people can the leaders be driven to change.
Like in Things Fall Apart, Achebe does not intend to idealize traditional
values. In Things Fall Apart, Achebe points out that one ofthe reasons leading to
the disintegration of the society is the fault in the culture. In A Man ofthe People,
34
Odili cannot totally accept the wisdom of the village, e.g. primitive loyalty.
(MOP 8) Our culture and values, followed by our identity, are altering according
to the force from inside and outside. In contrast to Okonkwo, Odili repents and,
most important, improves himself tbroug
his ability and willingness of
reflection. Therefore, Achebe wants us to be flexible: look at the problematic
social identity, understand the culture from the new perspective, put aside the bad
elements of the culture and keep those that are good with which we can build a
new social identity realized by all of us. Through the transformation of the
individual identity, followed by that of the social identity hopefully, social reform
can begin.
Anthi11. of the Savannah
A Man ofthe People was set in
experience the confusion of values in
a newly independent nation where people
the
independence. The absence of traditional
transition
values and
from
colonialism
to
the continuation of the
colonial burden hinder African sejf-determjnatjon. In the uovel, Achebe exposes
the present problems and confirms the ability of individuels to create new values
and identity that bring a new social and political order into existence.
the Savannah is
Anthills of
published twenty seven years after the independence. Sadly, it
seems to be an extension of A
Man of the People;
the problems mentioned in
which could also be found in this novel. Besides finding out 'where the rains
began to beat us',
as in Things FallApart andA Man ofthe People,
Achebe also
attempts to review the process of decolonization and proposes solutions in
Anthills ofthe Savannah.
In The trouble with Nigeria,
for the
Achebe accuses the leadership ofthe root cause
social problems: '(They) are, in the language of psychoJogists, role
models. People look up to them and copy their actions. . .Therefore if a leader
lacks discipline the effect is apt to spread automatically down to his
followers.'(Achebe 1987:31) Achebe has already unveiled this problem in A Man
ofthe
People through the character Nanga. In Anthills
'goes into more
detail about the
ofthe Savannah,
Achebe
kind of people involved in leadership and I go
from that to consider the kind of education for leadership such people need to
acquire in order to be fit for its task.' (Interview with Chris Searle, Lindfors 1997:
156)
36
Aehebe no longer shows as much confidence in individuals' influence in
Anthills of the Savannah as he
does in A
Man of the People. He
realizes the
limitation of the individual and the importance of the leaders' influence on the
masses, as they are the role models, the ones 'people look up to' and 'copy'. The
individual identity of the leaders must change first; otherwis; people cannot be
mobilized. Different from A Man
of the People in
which a teacher does
self-narration, Achebe gives voices to the leaders of the country in this novel
-
Chris, Commissioner for huformation; Ikem, editor of the National Gazette; and
Beatrice, Senior Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Finance. As Achebe
says, it is a book especially for educating leaders. We could see their thought and
feelings as well as their chnnges in the novel. And different from A Man of the
People,
Achebe sounds more optimistic this time.
Anthills of the Savannah
is set in a fictional nation Kangan undergoing
internal divisions and conflicts. The problems of the Jeadersbip addressed in A
Man ofthe People
- repeating the colonizers' act oftuming the native into Others,
ignoring the peopl&s need and continuing to exploit them -could also be seen in
this nation. It is ironic that national liberation is now turned into the nationalism
of domination. Like Nanga in A Man
ofthe People,
the head of Kangan, Sam,
clings to the west. He admires the English to the point offoolishness', and 'his
major flaw was that all he ever wanted was to do what was expected of him
especially by the English' (AS ) (Achebe 1987:49) Worse than Nanga, he not
only looks down upon his people, but distances himself from the masses to
secure his power, acting in the same way as the colonizers did. The big contrast
between his refusal to go to Abazon or meeting the leaders of the Abazon
delegation and his hospitality shown to the American journalist in a party is a
37
good example. He promotes the cultural values of the coloniser by keeping
himself away from the masses and denying their values. As a eader, his actions
disable the formation of a collective national kientity.
Oiing to the colonial burden, the collective identity is always problematic,
an issue which has been discussed in A
addresses this problem in
Man ofthe People.
Achebe particularly
Anthills ofthe Savannah. The bias
in gender and social
class is particularly evident. Women are traditionally subordinated in the sexist
Igbo culture. The situation has not improved in post-colonial times, As for the
social class, people from the upper class, such as the elite and leades, can only
identify with those from the same class but not lower-caste men. sam's
governance aggravates this problem. Inequality prevents people from seeing
themselves as 'one self', which goes on fostering the value of a materialistic
individualism. To correct this, Aehebe believes that it has to do with our leaders
re-connecting themselves with the people and not living up there, unaware of
their reality.' (interview with Chris Searle, Lindfors 1997:156) Hence, the leaders
should necessarily reinvent a new social identity with which the unity of the
people can be maintained. Achebe demonstrates this through the first person
narratives ofthe thxee characters - Chris ilcem and Beatrice.
In Ant/ii/ls
of the Savannah
Achebe gives space for a variety of voices.
Achebe's rejection of a monological narrative voice shows bis objection to
political domination. He believes that the history of the nation is heterogeneous,
as Chris says: " We tend sometimes to forget that our story is only one of twenty
million stories - one synoptic accounf (AS p.66-67). Also, this technique etmbles
us to explore in depth the individual identities of these three characters - Chris,
38
lkem aii Beatrice - from different angles. They teli their
stories in different
ways. Chris sees power as cose1y related io facts aiid
so 1is story is always
objective and factual. He tells Beatrice about bis school
days with Ikem and Sam
to explain the present pictire which makes his story sound objective.
Chris
accepts hirriseifbeing 'in the middle' as he is '(n)either as bright as Wem and not
such a social success as Sani'(AS p.65) }owever Chris's insistence
on
objectivity and hi willingness to be in the middle are his greatest weakness. lt is
often 'an impediment to constructive change.'(Ikeganij 1991:497) Pondering the
state of the government, he suspects his motives of staying on in power even
though he athnitted to himselfthat it 'never was a game'. (AS2) He admits that it
may be due to inertia. Chris does not realize the need of taking a stand till Ilcem
is arrested and killed.
In contrast, [kern takes a stand against
Chx-is1s objectivity. He qûestions the
source of so-called facts and asks Chris to 'stop looking back over bis shoulders.
(AS 45) He says that passion is the only weapon: ' Our best weapon against them
is not to marshal facts, of which they are truly managers, but passion. Passion is
our hope and strength, a very present help in trouble'.
(AS p.38-9)
He is
optimistic about the present political situation and is sure that it can be saved i1
we put our minds to it.'(AS 46) However, Chris regards Ikem as a romantic (AS
39) because, to Chris, the situation is out of control.
The third narrator, Beatrice, according to Fiora Spaxn.,w, 'is the most
important female character that Achche has created and that the "modern
Beatrice" is also a goddess and a muse.'(Kanaganayakani 1993: p.45)
Achebe
enables the female character Beatrice to narrate her own experiences. The
39
woman's voice is beard in the novel. Traditionally, women were marginalised in
the Igbo culture. Aehebe merely reflects this in his early novels. In Things Fall
Apart, women are voiceless. In A Ma
of the People,
the images of women
playing traditional roles such as singers and dancers could be seen at the
beginning of the novel. Nanga's wife, Mrs. Nanga. and his fiancée, Edna, are all
domestic and under Nanga's thumb. Unlike
Things Fall Apart, a strong female
character, Eunice, the fiancée ofMax, is created. She is decisive and independent,
which is shown clearly in the scene where she killed Chief Kolo. However,
Achebe adds that '(o)nly then she falls down on Max' body and begins to weep
like a woman. . . A very strange girl, people said.' (MOP 160) In a society
suffering the breakdown of law and order, the act of retaliation by a girl is still
regarded as strange. Though Achebe's attitude towards women becomes more
flexible, in his world, women are still on the fringe of the society.
the Savannah,
In Ant/ii/ls of
Achebe reveals his reflection on women's identity. He gives voice
to Beatice, suggesting that Achebe realizes the need of including female in the
modern African context because 'this world belongs to the people of the world,
not to any little caucus, not matter how talented.' (AS p.215) All people, no
matter what their gender and class are, should join hands to tell the story of
Nigeria and contribute to building their nation.
As Achebe says, the solution to the present problems is to make the leaders
see the need of reconnecting themselves to the people, no matter which class or
what gender they are, and Beatrice is the one whoni Achche empowers to see the
need. Beatrice is also able to help the leaders understand their own weakness. To
Chris, Beatrice challenges him by saying that '(t)he story ofthìs country, as far as
you are concerned,, is
the
story of the three of you. . . ' (AS p.66)Chris's conceit
40
makes him ignore the importance of other people in the society: We tends
sometimes to forget that our story is only one of twenty million
stories- one tiny
synoptic account.' (AS 66-67) As for Ikem, he believes that with passion, a
storyteller can tell stories without any fear However, his narrative tends to be too
subjective beeause as Gikandi says, 'his primary concern is not the accurate
observations of the world around him but the ways in which he can reiiivent
experiences to fit his state ofmind.' (Gikandi p.142) Beatrice can see this "chink
in his armoury ofbrilhiant and original ideas" (AS p.91) and has argued with him
on it. She challenges him that although he has written a novel and a play on the
Women's war, be has "no clear rote for women in is political thinking.' (AS
p.91) Wem at first does not understand it and refuses to take this comment. At
'ast, he athnits it and says " a novelist niust listen to his
characters who after ali
are created to wear the shoe and point the writer where it pinches." (AS p.9!)
Hence, Beairice, a woman as she is, is not inferior to Chris or Íkem. On the
contrary, these two men respect her and accept her accusation. Women's identity,
both the subjective and objective one, is now modified.
Beatrice is also represexited as a daughter ofldemili in the myth:
In the beginning Power rampaged through our world, iiaked So the
Almighty,
looking at his creation through the round undying eye ofthe Sun, srw and
pondered andflnally decided to send his daughter Idemili, to bear witness
to the moral nature ofauthority by wrapping around Power 's rude waist a
loincloth ofpeace andmodesty. (ASp.102)
Boehmer says, "the incarnation of Idemili is a redemption of the present political
situation as it is of the neglect of the goddess in the past." And "Beatrice's
spiritual power as a blessed woman thus represents the fulfillment of Ikem's final
41
vision of the woman as adopting a new and
yet-to-be imagined ro1e as signifting
new hope".(Boehjner 1990:108) In other words,
space is now niade for women,
and a new identity is created for them. Women should
not see themselves or be
seen as subordinates. They are encouraged to take on
a new role in the society.
Aehebe shows this change in the stncture of the novel as weti. The
story
startS with the Voice of a powerful dictator and his "unquenchable thirst
to sit in
authority on his fellow" (AS p.lO4) and concludes with the voice of
a woman
Elewa, a common woman and Ikem's fiancée, and her care of her friend.
As
Boehmer says,
Masculine images of power and agency are juxtaposed with
"feminine" evocations of peace and reconciliation.' (Boehmer p. 1 07) Women's
voice being heard in this male-dominated society suggests that the masculine
elements in their collective identity are too much and (violence /power) should
be neutralized by the feminine ones (Idemili: peace and modesty). As Achebe
says:
¡n mapping out in detail what woman5 role is going to be, I am aware that radical
new
thinking Ls required The quality ofcompassion and humanness which the woman brings to
the world generally has not been given enough scope up till now to frfluence the way the
world is run.
have created all kind ofmyths to support the suppression ofthe woman,
and what the group around Beatrice Ls' saying is that the time has now come toput an end
to that. I'm saying the woman herseifwill be in thefoï'efront in designing what her new
role is going to be, with the humble cooperation of man. The position of Eeatrice as
sensith'e leader ofthat group is indicative ofwhat I see as necessary (n the transition to
the kind ofsociely which J think we shouldbe aiming to create. (Gikandip. ¡45)
esides gender, the problem of social class is what Achebe aims at dealing
with in this novel. Chris, lkem and Beatrice are the leaders of the country and
sh2.re the sanie problem most leaders have: despising the common people. For
instance, they speak to Agatha and Elewa in Pidgin English. However, they use
Standard English among themselves. Their insistance on using Standard English
reveals their desire of making themselves different from ordinary people
unconsciously.
With regards to Chris, he is a member of the Cabinet and is alienated from
the people. His confession to Beatrice about his pride in that he does not take into
account other people's stories in the histoiy of the country is an example. His
change comes when he is forced to flee Bassa with the help of the
common
people. The student leader Emmanuel and the taxi driver Braimoh replace Sam
and Ikem in Chris's life. He is amazed at the existence of talented people
among
the lower class and is disgusted with the haughtiness of the elite who always
believe they alone are important to the nation: 'Why did we not cultivate such
young men before now? Why, we did not even know they existed if the truth
must be told! We? Who we are? The trinity who thought they owned Kangan as
BB once unkindly said?' (AS 191) The last words 'The Last Grin. 'he utters
. .
before he dies is to satirise his conceit and ignorance. The ending of the story of
three of you', according to Chris, is that three of them become three broken
bottles:
Three green bottles. One has accidentally fallen; one is tilting. Going,
going, bang 1 Then we becomes I, becomes imperial We. ' (AS I 91)
Ikem's change is equally obvious and important. He does not accept
Beatrice's accusation of his unclear role of women in the first place. He also
refuses to accept Chris's comment on him that he 'had no solid contact with the
ordinary people ofKangan'. (AS 39) He sees himselfas a passionate defender of
the poor. However his narration is unreliable. On several occasions, he shows
unconsciously his bias against female and the common people. For example, be
43
insists on sending Elewa back to her home at mid-night because he cannot bear
to keep a lower-class woman in his house through the night. However, he is
willing to catch the last train and hurries to Beatrice's home after midnight just
because ofa single call from Beatrice. Ikem's different attitudes towards Beatrice,
i intellectual woman, and Elewa,, an illiterate woman, shows his contempt on
lower-caste women.
To the people with low status, Ikem displays no respect as welL He has
never visited his village Abazon since his departure from it in youth. While
seeing a large crowd of Abazon indigenes in Bassa, he says, 'A truly motley
crowd! No wonder His Excellency was reported to have received the news
of
their sudden arrival on his doorstep with considerable apprehension. I would too
if I were in his shoes'. (AS 120-121) Ikem undergoes a great change after his
meeting with the old man of Abazon. The old man urges him and his people to
repeat the story of the struggle of the Abazonians against the rulers of Kangan.
allowing him to see the wisdom of the people from the
lower class
and rethink
his own attitude towards the peasants. He is also thrilled by the visit of two
taxi-drivers who come to his home and thank him for his commitment to the
society. For the first time, he realizes that the problem of his country lies not ¡n
the failure of the masses, but 'the failure of our rulers to re-establish vital inner
links with the poor and dispossessed of this country' (AS 141). He admits his
problem: 'he had always had the necessity in a vague but insistent way, had
always felt a yearning without very clear definition, to connect his essence with
earth and earth's people. The problem for him had never been whether it should
be done but how to do it with integrity.' (AS 140-141)
44
Beatrice's staying away from the conmoj people is
conveyed from her
masters1aye relationship with Agatha, her housemaid. 1er
rudeness to Agatha
could be seen in her response to Agatha when Agatha refuses
to serve Elewa, a
woman of her class: ' Agatha, you are a very stupid girl and
a very wicked
girL. Get out ofmy way' (AS 182) Agatha's resentment inspires Beatrice
to find
'herself feeling for the first time for this poor.' (AS i 83) It is the first
time
Beatrice consciously attempts to establish relationship with a common person:
Beatrice turned to where Agatha sat with her face birid in her hands on the
kitchentable and placed her hand on her heaving houider. She immediately raised
her head and stared at her mistress in unbelief.
I am Sorry Agatha.
The unbelief turned first to shock and then through the mist of her tears, a sunrise of
smiles. (AS 185)
The death of Ikem and Chris also makes her redevelop her relationship with the
common people. Her home becomes the refuge of Emmanuel and Braiinob and
Adainma.
Achebe a10 displays the breakdown of gender and class barriers in the
narrative technique, the use of language and the proverbs in this novel. The novel
starts with Sam and excludes the voices of other people. Later on stories of the
comnion people are also included, such as the elder of the Abazon, the taxi
drivers and the student leader, symbolizing the inclusion of people from different
classes in the society
The change in the use of language and proverbs also shows Acheb&s
increasing awareness of the importance of mass participation in the society. At
the beginning of the novel, Standard English is dominant. The use of proverbs
are not allowed: 'I doxft quite get you, Professor. Please cut out the proverbs'
45
(AS i 9) In chapter four, we can see that Ikem refuses to talk
to Elewa in pidgin
English. As the novel proceeds, pidgin - the language belongs to the common
people - becomes more and more prominent as
their voices are
heard. The
leaders, Chris, Ikem and Beatrice use pidgin as well. The use of proverbs also
increases. The novel ends with Elewa's pidgin: LEven myselfl rio de cry like dat!
What kind oftrouble you wan begin cause now? I beg-c. Hmm!' (AS 233) This is
different from
A Man of the People in
which pidgin
is
used by Nanga as a
political tool for winning the people's tnist, as it makes him sound like one of
them; pidgin is used
in Anthills ofthe Savannah by
the common people who live
and fight bravely for the survival in the regime with a towering level of
corruption and cheating.
Achebe says that 'our
most meaningfiul job today should be to determine
what kind of society we want, how we are going to get there, what values we can
take from the past, if we can, as we move along.' (interview with Bernth
Londfors, Ian Munro, Richard Priebe and Reinhard Sander, Lindforsl997:34)
The society that Achebe desires is depicted in the naming ceremony at the end of
the novel. The naming ceremony seems to be a union of people from different
classes and backgrounds: Beatrice, Emmanuel, Braimoh, Adamma, Abduel,
Elewa, Elewa's mother and uncle, Ama, Captain Medani and Agatha. Also,
Beatrice brings together the past and present in the naming ceremony. She points
out the flaw in the traditional naming ceremony in which only the father has the
right to name the child. She herself names the baby girl with a boy's name:
Amaechina, which means " May-the path-never close" (AS p.222), symbolizing
"open aecess to knowledge, communication between past and present, and once
again unification of apparent opposites". (ikegami p.5O4) The breakdown of
46
class and gender barriers is reflected in this naming ritual because it is usually
performed by men but is now taken over by the women. Amaechina's birth also
suggests the emergence of the bond between a middle-class intellectual male and
ari illiterate working class woman. All these open up "the path" of the unity of
people from different classes and gerders, which leads to a new collective
identity and a new beginning for the nation.
Similar to Things Fall Apart and A Man ofthe People, Achebe stresses the
importance of traditional values in this novel. Flaws in the culture should be
modified, like the naming ceremony in which the rule that only father can name
the baby is now changed by Beatrice. For those good eJements ofthe cufture,
we
should put them new uses. In bridging the past and the present, people can then
create their identity on the basis ofthe values embodied in the culture.
In Anthills of the Savannah. the wisdom of African culture is presented in
myth, which is people's shared asset and does not belong to the leader, elite class
and a particular group of people. The myth of Idemili warns people of the danger
ofpower and it seems a prediction ofthe rise and fall of Sam. Sam, according to
Chris and Ikem, is not a bad man to begin with. However, after he possesses
power, a host of problems are spawned. He develops an 'uiiquenchable thirst'
( AS i 04) for power, uses but also distrusts his cronies, weeds out dissidents,
shuns the common people and even ignores their protests.
The importance of the tradition of storytelling is also highlighted in the
novel. Stories are important in the culture because, according to Supriya Nah,
they transmit 'group identity and histoiy', and served as the guidelines to cope
47
with the demands ofone's environment.'(Nair 1993:117) They pass on the values
as well as the collective identity from one generation to the next. As Achebe
says, People creates stories create people; or rather, stories create people create
stories' (Achebe i 989: 1 1 2) Through the elder of Abazon, Ikem realizes the
power of this tradition. The story about the teopard and the tortoise told by the
elder, for instance, reflects the wisdom and the value of their culture - the
importance
oftrying: 'ourfathers were defeated but they tried' (AS 128). Stories
are ever-lasting, so stories arid the storytellers are very essential. The elder
explains this point by saying:
The sounding ofthe battle-drum is iniportant; the fierce waging ofthe war itself is irtiportant; and
the telling ofthe story afterwards - each is important in its own way. I tell you there is not one of
them we could do without. But if you ask me which of them takes the eagle-feather I will say
boldly: the story. . .Because it is only the story can continue beyond the war and the warrior. It is
the story that outlives the sound of war-drums and the exploits of brave fighters. . .the story is
ever-lasting. . . Like fire, when it is not blazing it is smouldering under its own ashes or sleeping
and resting inside its flint-house. (AS 124)
In these three novels, Acbehe tries to bridge the past and present, and
explore the culture and values for the basis of collective identity To face the
modem world, Achebe stresses the importance of reflection on inherited values
and the need to modify them for the present world. Aehebe's flexibility in
responding to the changing world can be seen in his novels.
His choice of using
English to write his novels also reveals it.
48
The language used in Achebe's novels
In Colonialism, one of the tools that the coloniser used
to control the
colonised was to linpose English on all African and suppress the use of their
native languages which were deemed inferior by the white men. Getting rid of
this linguistic imperialism is, to Fanon, an essential step for Africans to eliminate
the colonial influence on them and reeognize their own culture: To speak a
language is to take on a world, a culture'
(Black Skins, White Mas1cs 38); by the
same token, to refuse to speak a language is to deny the culture that language
points to. (Needham 1993:14)
Ngugi also sees the importance of language in constructing identity. As we
have discussed before, culture embodies the values that form the basis of a
people's group identity. Ngugi reminds us that our culture is the basis of
communication, which relies on language to develop:
CominuniaUon between human beings is also the basis and process of evolving culture.
In doing similar kinds of things and actions
over and over again
under similar
circumstances, similar even in their mutability, certain patterns. moves, rhythms habits,
attitudes, experiences and knowledge emerge. Those experiences are handed over to the
next generation and become the inherited basis for their further actions on nature and on
themselves. There is a gradua!
accumulation of values which
in time become almost
self-evident truths governing their conception of what is right and wrong, good and bad,
beautiful and ugly, courageous aid cowarcfty, generous and mean in their itemaI and
external relations. Over a time this becomes a way of life distinguishable &oni other
ways of life. They develop a distinctive culture and histoy. . . All this carried by
language. Language as culture is the collective memory bank ofa peoples experience in
history. Culture is almost indistinguishable from the language that makes possible its
genesis, growth, banking, articulation and indeed its transmission from one generation to
the next.
(Ngugi 1993:440-441)
In other words, language is the carrier of culture, and culture carries the values
49
by which 'we come to perceive ourselves and our place in the world' (Ngugi
1993:441), i.e. our identity.
Imposing a foreign language on the African, according to Ngugi, broke the
harmony between the environment and the language. The foreign language no
longer carried their own culture and could not depict the images of their world
accurately. The African would be 'exposed exclusively to a culture that w
a
product of a world external to himself. He was being made to stand outside
himself to look at himself', (Ngugi 1993:443), resulting in 'colonial alienation'.
(Ngugi 1993:443) Then the culture no longer reflected their world, and hence the
African could only see their world 'defined by or reflected
in
the culture of the
language of imposition.' (Ngugi 1993 :443) Similar to how the cotoniser used
identity as a tool to devalue the native, they made the native language associate
with low status, humiliation and inferiority. This negative image becomes
internalized, which leads to Fanon's burden, 'Black Skin, White Masks', in
post-colonial times. It is this mental colonization that the African fmds difficult
to stamp out. Its effect lasts long and even influences the process of
self-identification and decolonization in the African countries, which are
addressed in Acheb&s A
Man of the People
and
Anthills of the Savcmnah.
Therefore, according to Ngugi, the only way to resist this influence is for
Africans to discard English and write in their native language. Otherwise
Africans will go on alienating themselves from their culture and they can never
construct a real identity for themselves, but continue to be defined by the
coloniser with this foreign language.
Aehebe, however, sees this issue from a different point of view. 11e points
out the diiu1ty of i.ising the native language in writing, owning to the fact that
there are hmtheds of communities throughout Nigeria, each of which has its own
language. British coonia1ism arbitrarily grouped these communities and made
them a country - Nigeria. English, since then, has become their common
language. The British, Achebe claims, 'gave them a language with which to talk
to one another. If it failed to give them a song, it at least gave them a tongue for
sigiiìng. (Achebe I 975: 77) Therefore, Achebe reminds us that those African
writers who have chosen to write in English or French are not unpatriotic smart
alecks 'with an eye on the main chance - outside their own co'untxies. They are
by-products of the same process that made the new nation-states of Africa.'
(Aehebe 1975: 77) Achebe goes on arguing for his use ofEnglish by saying that:
The real question is not whether Africans could write in English but whether they
ought to. Is it right that a man should abandon his mother tongue for someone else's? It
looks like a dreadful betrayal and produces a guilty feeling.
Butformethereisnootherchoice.(Achebe 1975:83)
In order to communicate with Africans using other native languages, Achebe
concedes that be
has no
choice but to resoft to
this foreign
language.
Achebe's ability to adapt to the changing world can be seen from his act of
using a new English with Nigerian style in his writings. In this way, this new
English no longer belongs to the white, but becomes a language of theirs:
I feel that the Eng!ish language will be able to carry the weig1t of my African
experience. But it will have to be a new English, still in ful communion with its
ancesiral home but altered to suit its new African surroundings. (Achebe 1975: 84)
Gabriel Okara bolsters this by saying that:
Some may regard this way ofwriting English as a desecration ofthe language. This is of
English is far frein a dead
course not eue. Living languages grow like living things, and
language. There are American, West Inthan, Astra1an Ciadian and New Zealand
versions ofEnglish. ALI ofthem add life and vigour to the language whUe reflecting their
51
own respective cultures. Why shouldn't there be a Nigerian or West African English
which we can use to express our own ideas, thinking and philosophy in our own way?
(Ngugi 1993:436)
In fact, we can find Achebe's writings with Nigerian style in his novel.
Achebe
in Things Fall Apart uses a lot
of Jgbo words, some without translations.
Readers can only understand those words with the help of the glossary, or guess
from the context. In this way, the balance of power seems to reverse: non-Igbo
readers are outsiders I Others who are unable to understand Igbo's culture.
Kortennar explains that some Igbo words are not translated because there is no
way to translate these words accurately in English. For example, in chapter 9,
Okonkwo's daughter, Ezinma suffers from iba. The glossary tells us that it means
fever. However, Kortenmir says that this word is presumably not translated
because 'fever' in English referes to the disease which can be diagnosed and
treated with medicine. However, in African context, iba is a spiritual disorder,
not a physical illness.
Besides using Igbo words Achebe's use of proverbs and similes in bis
novels also makes bis writings teem with Nigerian colour. In
Things Fall Apart.
according to Bemth Lindfors, proverbs and similes Achebe 'ise are all drawn
from village life, but those in A
Man ofthe People and Anthills ofthe Savannah
are associated with both village life and urban experience.(Lindfors 1978:50)
Proverbs are important in Igbo culture because proverbs are the palm-oil with
which words are eaten' (TFA 5) Lindfors adds that Achebe's proverbs not only
add local colour to his writings. They also help to introduce the values of the
society. For example, the proverbs, the sun will shine on those who stand before
it shines on those who kneel under them' and 'if a child washed his hands he
52
could eat with kings' (TFA 53) illustrate
Igbo values about status and
achievement.
In A Man ofthe People, Achebe uses proverbs e.g. 'if
you respect today's
king, others will respect you when your turn comes' (MOP 70) and
if you look
only in one direction your neck will become stiff' (MOP 90)
to display
traditional wisdom. In Anthills of the Savarna
proverbs are not welcomed at
the beginning ofthe story: 'Please cut out the proverbs, ifyou don't mind...' (AS
19) because Sam, a westernized leader, does not like anything related to the tribal
past. However, as we have discussed before, proverbs are used more often when
the novel proceeds, for exampíe, when lkem delivers a lecture to the university
students, he praises the wisdom embodied in the proverbs: 'Our proverb says that
the earthworm is not danicng, it is only its manner of walking' (AS 157); 'our
ancestors made a fantastic proverb on remote arid immediate causes. If you want
to get at the root of murder, they said, you have to look for the bLacksmith who
made the matchet. (AS 159)
Chapter three: Conclusion -Achebe's quest for the identity
Achebe's three novels Things Fall Apart,
of the Savannah
A Man ofthe People
and
Anthills
are written at different historical moments. According to the
needs ofthe particular situation, Achebe shapes the narrative techniques and puts
the stress on different issues in the Three novels. Though they are different, we
cari regard these three novels as Achebe's continuous quest for the identity of
Africa.
in ThIngs Fall Apart,
Achebe puts the stress on rehabilitating the culture
that was overlooked and warped by colonial culture, reflecting the need of the
society at that time. To fight for independence and build a new nation, Nigerian
are in need of being assured of their right and ability to define themselves, and
this novel seems a vehicle of self-discovery How we see our culture affect how
we look at ourselves. Achebe, therefore, celebrates the tribal past, exhibiting the
values and wisdom embodied in his culture. Okorikwo's strength, courage and
diligence are praised. However, Achebe is not blind to the faults ofhis culture, as
he says:
We cannot pretend that our past was one long technicolour idyll. We have to admit that
like other peopl&s pasts ours had its good as well as its bad sides. (Nige!a Magazine,
June 1964) (Griffiths 1978:69)
Achebe points out the lack in his culture. In the novels, flexibility, for example, is
one of the elements they lack in their identity. Okonkwo's destmction is due to
his failure of adjusting himself to the changing world. His killing of Ikemefuna
and sacrificing his personal life to a conmumal duty show that he performs more
than the society expects. Nwoye seemS to be a contrast to him. 11e sees the
problems of the culture and is willing to change. Achebe, as what Gareth
54
Griffiths describes, 'is the inheritor of Nwoye's revolt as well as of Okonkwo's
sacrifice'. (Griffiths 1978:70)
Different froiti
A Man ofthe People
Things Fall Apart
in which an Omniscient narrator is present,
is narrated by the first person Odili, in retrospect. Though
the readers cannot agree with Okonkwo's decision sometimes
in Things Fall
Apart, he can generally earn readers' sympathy. The reader can easily take the
side of Okonkwo and finds the white men's understanding of native
superficial. In A Man of the People, Odili
cu1nre
narrates the story, using this
opportunity to criticise and correct bis judgements, thoughts and
actions. The
reader finds it difflciüt to believe and agree with him at the outset, but can
graduafly ident
reflect and grow towards maturity with him in the end. It
proves Achebe's different stresses on these two novels: the former is to explore
the values of the culture and give bis people dignity. while the latter trigger
reader& reflection on the post-colonial problems of Nigeria as an independent
nation.
Odili's seff-narration reveals his oscillation between morality and
self-interest, a problem faced by the people in Nigeria, a newly independent
nation. Achebe addresses it by depicting Odili as a young Nigerian trapped by
the conflicting demands of the two worlds: the traditional and the contemporary
worlds. To search for an appropriate identity for the people in such a confusing
society, Achebe points out the difficulty. He reflects on the 'discrepancies
between the solutions of the tribal past and the problems of the urban presenf
(c:iriffiths 1978:77). In other words, the values of his cutute cannot be fully
applied to establish his identity and solve the present problems as the values may
55
conflict with the sociat and emotional demands of the modem world. Difficult as
it is, individual reflections and change are encouraged in the novel, as Achebe
believes that 'somebody may listen' and 'there is still a possibility for change'.
Honesty, emphasized in Odili's reflection, is one of the values the African lacks
in his identity in that society. Of course, the values found in Okonkwo, such as
sacrifice and courage, are gradually cultivated in Odili's individual identity after
he goes through all the difficulties and challenges.
In Anthills of the Savannah. the complexity of the narration - three voices
from Chris, Ikem and Beatrice, as well as an omniscient narrator - reflects
Achebe's artistic maturity and understanding of the problems in the society.
Achebe puts part of the blame on the people for the failure of the society in A
Man of the People, as he believes that people's apathy nurtures Nanga. In
Anthills ofthe Savannah, however, Achebe realizes it is the fail'ure ofthe leades
that gives rise to the social problems. The common people, such as the elder from
Abazon, the student 1eaders gain respect in this novel, as they are portrayed as
brave and honest. It is the corrupt leadership that makes their lives intolerable.
Achebe still believes that the problem stems from neo-colonialism. However, in
this novel, Acliebe emphasizes the need for Africans, particularly those in power,
to rethink the process of decolonisation, to find out what
distances them from
the masses and prevents them from identifying with the people. Achebe thinks
that what they lack in their identity is the concept of equality.
the
Achebe stresses the importance of mass participation. He points out
Sam and the
danger of concentrating all power in one man through the character
government.
myth of Idemili and the benefits of including more people in the
56
This structure seems similar to the one in Okonkw's time, in
which they have
no chiefs and kings. Then the Igbo can speak for themselves. Of
course, it is in
the past and Achebe knows that we cannot go back to this system. However,
Achebe hopes to put this old value new use: 'we have to fmd a way of dealing
with the problems created by the fact that somebody says he's speaking
on your
behalf, but you don't know who he is.' (interview with Jonathan Cc«, Lindfors
i 997:78)
The values Achebe siresses for constructing African identity in these three
novels are different, according to the need of the society at a particular time. His
view of identity revealed in these three novels exemplifies the notions of identity
defined in chapter one -that identity can be invented and identity is not fixed, but
fluid. He can celebrate the depth and value of Igbo culture, pointing out the
adverse effect of the colonial legacy on the society, as well as modifying the
traditional values for the present world. However, he must do all these with the
colonizers' tool - English language - which once destroyed his culture and
tradition.
Achebe seems to have admitted that language is impossible to decolonize.
This seems to illustrate Stuart Rail's notion that
after the break', there is no
absolute return. This form of imperialism is inescapable. Achebe is 'perfectly
bilingual' (Acliebe 1976: 98) and he does have a choice to use his native
language in his writings. However, Achebe 'opt(s) for English' (Achebe
1976:83), aiming at communicating with as many Nigerian as possible. Also,
Achebe considers writing to be a kind of teaching. Besides Nigerians and
Africans, readers in other countries are his targets as well. Achebe attempts to
57
chaiige his people's view of seeing theit own cukure, vhich affects the ways they
perceive thenisdves. More than that, Achebe also hopes to change the objective
view of identity, i.e. how others see Afticans. English enables him to reach the
most readers in the world.
IncLuding Igbo words, proverbs, similes, myths, etc, in his writings, Achebe
achieves what he says:
The African writer should aim to use English in a way thai brings out his message
best without altering the language to the extent that its value as a
medium of
international exchange will be lost. 1-le should ai!11 at fashioning Out an English
which is at once universal and able to carry his peculiar experience. (Achebe
1976:83)
Achebe's writings do provide Africans with a channe to explore their cñture,
which shapes theiT perception of their nations and themselves. Non-Africans,
However,
through Aehebe's words, also perceive Africa from a new perspective.
something fluid.
the search for their identity has yet to be completed, as identity is
attempts to
lt alteTs accotdiiïg to the chaiiges of the world. The ickiitities Aehebe
and he is probab[y still
construct in these three novels are not totally the same,
searching for a new one.
58
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